


The Thing About Teammates

by Amarenthina



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Coming Out, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 00:50:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7663816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amarenthina/pseuds/Amarenthina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[The shittiest part of it is, in Nealer’s opinion, is that it happens during when they have a weekend off. </p><p>That’s a horrible shitty thing because it means that there are a few tense days where he has no idea how the team is going to react, because everyone’s busy, and if they even saw the news, maybe calling him up and saying “Hey man, don’t worry, it’s chill” was not at the top of their minds. Although, even if they had, Nealer might not have actually noticed it because his phone was going completely crazy from apparently literally everyone but his teammates calling him.]</p><p> </p><p>In which Neal gets outed, and the team doesn't react the way he was expecting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Thing About Teammates

**Author's Note:**

> This is unbetaed shamefic and I am ashamed

The shittiest part of it is, in Nealer’s opinion, is that it happens during when they have a weekend off. 

That’s a horrible shitty thing because it means that there are a few tense days where he has no idea how the team is going to react, because everyone’s busy, and if they even saw the news, maybe calling him up and saying “Hey man, don’t worry, it’s chill” was not at the top of their minds. Although, even if they had, Nealer might not have actually noticed it because his phone was going completely crazy from apparently literally everyone but his teammates calling him. 

So Nealer wakes up saturday morning to find that fucking deadspin has decided to fucking out him, out of nowhere, and he can’t even go to practice and try to gauge his team’s reactions. No, he has to sit here and ruminate for two days. 

Only then, it turns out, not so much, because then on Sunday, Sid goes and comes out. 

And Nealer just pulls up the article and stares at it, because, what? 

As far as Nealer knows, Sid is not gay. And the “As far as he knows” is something that he’s always sort of forced himself to tack on, because he tried really hard not to speculate on his teammates sexualities. For sanity reasons more than anything else, really, although politeness did play a part. 

And then, of course, the media loses it even more, because what’s bigger than the first ever NHLer coming out is Sidney fucking Crosby coming out, and Nealer’s honestly pretty grateful because his phone rings a lot less, but he’s also kind of worried, because, really, what the hell?

And finally, finally, the weekend ends, and he walks into the room on Monday, and the conversation just dies off as everyone looks at him, which is kind of exactly what he was afraid of. Nealer thinks he’s justified for flinching a little at their stares, but then Tanger flinches at him flinching, and they both just stare at each other for a while, and then Tanger shrugs. 

“Crazy weekend.” he says, and Nealer just snorts, and goes to his stall. 

“Something like that.” He says, and then it’s okay. 

Or, sort of okay, because it seems like a lot of people are having whispered conversations amongst themselves, and Nealer just tries not to read too much into it. 

And then, as if this whole thing couldn’t get anymore out of control, the press is there after practice, and when a reporter asks Duper what he thinks of all of it, Duper looks the guy in the eye and says “I think it’s great, especially since I’m gay too.”

When the press finally leaves them alone, and jesus, that was just after practice, Nealer doesn’t want to know what this will be like after a game, Nealer just stares at Duper, waiting for him to explain what the hell is going on. 

Duper doesn’t. 

Finally, Nealer gets fed up with waiting, and goes and stands in front of Duper, arms crossed. 

“Yes?” Duper asks, smirking a little. 

“You are not gay.” And whoops, that wasn’t quite how Nealer had meant to start the conversation, but it is a good point. “You have like ten children.”

“Well.” Duper says, still calm. “Maybe the press should realize that it’s none of their business either way.”

And then Nealer gets it, and he’s about to say something else when he, and about ten other people, get a phone notification at the same time, which means it’s the NHL app. 

Sid gets to his phone first, and lets out a little choking noise, which means that it’s actually something important. Nealer dives for his phone, and-

“When did he even find time to-” Nealer sits down hard in his stall. Flower had also come out. This was really not how he had expected any part of the locker room conversation to go. 

He rolls his head up and looks at the guys still in the locker room. Duper is snickering to himself. Sid just looks confused, which says a lot about his innocence in all of this. 

Nealer’s starting to catch on to the whole thing, and, well. It’s a lot. It’s too much to deal with right now, so he just lets it go, acts normal, and goes home. 

By the next practice, a solid chunk of his team has come out to the press in varying ways, and it looks like it’s starting to spread to other teams. Nealer had maybe cried a little bit when he read Paulie’s completely false but plausibly heart wrenching coming out article. 

Whatever, it was an emotional thing. He had been so scared how the team would react, and they were all just tossing themselves out there, to protect him. 

Of course, that meant that the press was starting to catch on, and to Nealer’s amazement, had dropped the story about him. His team’s plan was working. It seemed like the whole thing was going to blow over. 

But that meant that he should probably say something. 

So he does. Or, he tries to.

“Um. Guys.” What an intelligent start. 

“I just wanted to say. Thank you. For being cool about me being gay.” He refuses to let himself trip over the words- he was not a teenager anymore, he could say the word gay. “And for um. Helping with the press. It means a lot. But also you should stop now.”

“Why?” Tanger asks. “It’s so much fun.” 

Nealer glares at him. They were cool about this, he could joke about this, it was fine. “Yeah, Tanger, I know you’re having fun.” He says, drawing the words out. He pauses just long enough to see Tanger’s face get guilty, and then says “But it’s making it kind of difficult for me to figure out who’s in my dating pool.” 

It takes a second for the words to sink in, and then everyone laughs, and the tension breaks. 

And afterwards, Sid catches him, and pulls him aside, and tells him. “Sorry. I’ll make sure they stop coming out.” He rolls his eyes, and for a split second, Nealer feels like Sid totally gets it. 

“And, just for the record.” Sid says. “I, um. Am in your dating pool?” 

Nealer just stares at him for a moment, not sure if that was a come on or not. Sid flushes, and seems to realise what he said. 

“Not like that! I’m not saying, god. I’m just saying. I know, or, I think everyone else was doing it to get rid of the press. But I wasn’t. I just wanted you to know.”

And oh. 

Oh. 

Nealer thinks back to the article that he read when Sid came out, thinks back to the “As far as he knew” that he always tacked on, thinks back to Sid’s face when Duper came out, like he hadn’t in a million years expected that. 

Sid had come out, actually come out, ready to face all of the consequences, for Nealer. 

“Jesus, Sid.” Nealer thinks his voice sounds a little wrecked, but. “That’s. That means a lot.” 

Sid just shrugs and looks at the ground. “Not that it ended up doing much.” He laughs a little. 

“Still.” Nealer says. “Thank you.”

Sid smiles.


End file.
